Barry Diller: 'I Never Said Legacy Studios Couldn't Thrive in the Future'
The mogul responds when asked about his 40 years of trash-talking Hollywood and the movies as he enters the fray for his one-time home: Paramount
After former Paramount Pictures CEO Barry Diller lost out to Sumner Redstone and Viacom in 1994 to purchase Paramount after a six-month battle, he issued a legendary terse statement:
“They won. We lost. Next.”
Flash forward 30 years and “next” for the ever-restless Diller is . . . Paramount! On Monday, The New York Times reported that Diller — through the holding company he chairs, IAC — is exploring a run at the troubled media conglomerate, whose stock has dropped 80 percent in the last five years and 28 percent in 2024 alone.
Befitting Hollywood’s current reboot fever, the Paramount sale drama now has a beloved favorite from the 1994 OG version returning to reprise his role. Think of it like Judge Reinhold’s character from the original Beverly Hills Cop (a movie Paramount made when Diller was chairman in the early 1980s) returning to mix it up in the 2024 revival Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F.
Diller returns to his iconic role alongside such fresh faces as David Ellison, the movie-loving billionaire’s son; Apollo Global Management’s Marc Rowan, the kinder, gently private equity CEO; Bratz producer Stephen Paul; and in a surprise bit of casting, Canadian whiskey scion Edgar Bronfman, Jr, better known for his own role in the '90s Universal drama, in which he shared some memorable scenes with Diller.
Of course, if Diller is known for anything in the last 30 years, it’s . . . running America’s fourth-favorite search engine? No, that’s not it. (If you have to ask, that’s Ask.com.) Incubating Tinder? Impressive in its way (and lucrative), but no.
Ah yes: Talking smack about Hollywood at every opportunity.
Over the years, Diller has been one of the staunchest critics of Hollywood — and the movie business, in particular — for, well, everything. You don’t have to believe me: You just need to read Diller’s own words (and in some instances that of his confidants) going back even earlier than his efforts to buy Paramount in 1994, which I’ve compiled below.
There literally are 40 years of Diller quotes speaking ill of Hollywood and how it operates. It all makes one wonder what Diller, 82, sees in Paramount today.
So I asked him.
By email, Diller responded to me today when asked about his past comments and his potential interest in Paramount: